Terror of a Zygon
by whofics
Summary: The Doctor returns to UNIT headquarters, just in time for an old enemy from the past to rear its ugly head. But what is this lone Zygon after? With the help of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and a pair of rookie UNIT soldiers, the Doctor plans to find out. Author's note: This story takes place before the events of The Angels Take Manhattan.
1. Prologue

_Author's Note: This story takes place before the events of The Angels Take Manhattan_

Peter was feeling particularly proud of himself today. Even the endless, boring concrete walls of UNIT couldn't spoil his peppy mood. Granted, he has been expecting something a bit more like the government agencies he read about in his comic books. The types with super advanced technology oozing out of every nook and cranny staffed with top agents who were always dressed to kill, or the type with big tanks containing bizarre alien creatures that always seemed to be place in the hallways for people to walk and talk right by as they went to their next important mission.

No, compared to all that, UNIT seemed a bit…dull.

This didn't matter to Peter. He had studied and worked until he felt he might die of mental or physical exhaustion to get to get where he was today: his first day at UNIT. He wanted to be the perfect soldier, and this was the first step. He'd be out fighting extraterrestrial monstrosities within his first week!

It was at this moment that Peter began to realize he was hopelessly lost. The concrete had the marker "S-41" spray painted on to it in stark, black paint. New recruit orientation was supposed to take place on R-32…or was it R-31? Peter looked back down the way he came and looked at the crumbled piece of paper in his hand. He wrote down every important code he needed to memorize for that day. He was sure he could recite them as easily as he could recite the names of his eight siblings, but he had always been a cautious sort of fellow. As he began to retrace his steps, he heard a faint cry from somewhere down the hall.

As it often did, Peter's curiosity overwhelmed him, and he turned around for a second time. It wasn't long before he found himself in front of a massive steel door. The muffled cry slipped through the near impenetrable entrance. Peter pressed the entry code for prisoner cells on the slick white keypad that was built into the door.

The key pad flashed green and slid open with a soft hiss.

"Now, that's the kind of future stuff I was looking for," Peter thought to himself, with a grin covering his whole face.

The room he entered was completely dark, except for a square spotlight that shined a large patch of light from the ceiling to the floor. Inside of the light was a makeshift medical examining room with a flat metal table draped in a white cloth and a horseshoe of computer monitors that sat waiting for a patient to examine. A young man, wearing the same type of UNIT uniform as Peter, stood next to the table with his hand against the edge of the light, which immediately reminded Peter of a mime.

"Thank God, I've been shouting for an hour," the young man said. Peter couldn't help but notice how blue his eyes appeared.

"Is it your first day too?" Peter asked.

"I wish," the young man said, "if only to save me the embarrassment of explaining why I got stuck in here. I've been in charge of inspecting this wing of the compound for almost a year now. And today, of all days, the light barrier decides to go on the fritz. Could you get me out?"

The young man pointed to a key pad that stood on a thin stand off to Peter's right.

"Oh sure," Peter said, "I won't mention this to anyone, either, just to protect your reputation."

"I'd appreciate it," the young man said with a laugh, "here's the code."

Peter pressed each of the six digits after they were spoken by the accidental prisoner. The light tumbled down like a stage curtain that was suddenly severed from its ropes.

"Thanks, mate, I owe you," the young man's hand came down on Peter's shoulder. Peter felt the sensation of hundreds hot pins stabbing into his body. The pain vanished as suddenly as it came and Peter's whole body became dead weight. Without realizing it, he was on the floor, totally numb. His vision began to distort and duplicate everything around him. Underneath the white sheet that dangled down from the examining table, he thought he saw a pair of gentle blue eyes staring back at him, wide open in terror.

With the last of his quickly draining strength, Peter rocked himself onto his side to take one last look at the young man…

One thought went through his head. It wasn't a desperate, heroic thought about warning his compatriots, nor was it an observation about how strange it was that the young man's outline, which was becoming increasingly blurry as he slipped out of consciousness, suddenly changed into a shape like a starfish, then back to a normal human. No, all Samuel could think in that moment was "what a rubbish first day this turned out to be."


	2. Chapter 1: An Unexpected Landing

If anyone had been standing near the abandoned laboratory between the tics of a second at 18:00 hours, they would have heard a strange sound, a sound like a hundred million engines, or an asthmatic giant who has just ran for miles.

It wasn't actually either of these things, of course. It was simply the sound the TARDIS always made as it chronologically readjusted itself for a landing. The blue box's pilot stepped out triumphantly, only to have his expression quickly melt away from excitement to disappointment.

"Well, dear, it looks as though you've taken a wrong turn once again," the Doctor said to his ship as he scanned the room trying to place just where he was, "I do not remember waking up this morning and thinking 'gee, filthy old science lab sure do need to take a trip back to that ol' chestnut."

The Doctor ran his finger through a thick layer of dust and popped the filthy finger into his mouth for inspection.

"I know this dust" he muttered. It took a moment, but the memories came crawling from the crevasses of the past. Keep track of over a thousand years of memories was no simple task, but the right sensory detail was all it took to dig even the deepest remembrances out of the mind: Autons and the Master; Silurians and Sea Devils; Ms. Shaw and the Brigadier; Jo and Sarah Jane; the thoughts of his time at UNIT overwhelmed the Doctor. The old lab looked exactly how he left it on the day he flung his scarf over his shoulder and finally returned to wandering the stars.

"Good memories," the Doctor said to a silent companion, "some of the best…some of the few."

The Doctor started back to the TARDIS, when a flashing red light accompanied by a piercing alarm broke the silence that hung in the room. He thought for a minute about ignoring it, he had an appointment to keep with Amy and Rory, but then again, he did have a machine that could travel through time…

"And I never could resist an ol' fashioned warning signal."

The Doctor marched through the doors of the lab. From every direction, military voices could be heard shouting orders over the thunderous march of boot heels against linoleum floors. A platoon of seven or so soldiers, all wearing red berets with the UNIT insignia pinned on to them, came from one of the hall, heading in the Doctor's direction.

"At ease, chaps," the Doctor said with a half-mocking salute, "would one of you care to-"

The two soldiers leading the pack grabbed the Doctor under the arms and dragged him away from the lab and the TARDIS.

"Right, I'll just let you lot escort me to wherever I am most needed."

After being dragged around a few corners, up several flights of stairs, and down who knows how many corridors, the Doctor began to get annoyed.

"I'm perfectly capable of walking myself, you know!" he shouted, to no response, "the heels of my shoes are going to wear out if we keep this up! Anyone? No sympathy for footwear, then? Fine. See if I ever help again next time some spooky, spacey monster comes to this planet and starts breaking everything."

"That's quite enough, release him at once!" a stern, but familiar voice ordered. The soldiers released the Doctor, dropping him onto the floor.

"Ow!" the Doctor stood, rubbing his bottom, "well, glad to know someone around here has got a bit of sense."

And that someone was Kate Stewart. She didn't appear much different than the last time the Doctor saw her. The piercing eyes that could crack a diamond, csame as her father's, stared right at the Doctor, and her usually stoic face couldn't help but grin at seeing him.

"It's good to see you again, Doctor," Kate said, "you'll have to forgive this overly eager bunch. There have been a few changes at UNIT since we last worked together."

The Doctor walked alongside Kate to an industrial lift. The pair crammed in to the tiny room with three soldiers that kept their guns at the ready.

"Lovely to see you too, Kate. But I could do without the trigger happy bunch you've surrounded yourself with," the Doctor delicately pushed the barrel of a soldier's gun away from his face with his pointer finger.

"It's been about four years since the cube invasion, Doctor. The brass was not pleased that so many of those cubes managed to make their way into civilian homes. They felt as though my lack of military background was the reason for avoiding a more…aggressive approach. As such, I now have an "Assistant Head of Military Affairs."

"Quite a mouthful," the Doctor said, "and let me guess, he's the picture of military intelligence."

Kate rolled her eyes.

"Exactly," she said, "and in this case, that means wanting to blow up anything that comes close to the upper atmosphere. I keep him on a short leash though. I'm sure you'll find him just as charming as I do."

The lift came to a halt and opened at the central hub of UNIT. Soldiers and scientists were running security checks and biological scans across dozens and dozens of monitor screens that were spread in rows throughout the room. On the far wall, directly across from the lift entrance, was a massive screen showing a map of the United Kingdom.

"I'm sure you recall the Zygon invasion that took place in Scotland during your time at UNIT?" Kate asked.

"Of course, not to be a namedropper, but I did defeat the Loch Ness monster that day," the Doctor turned to an impressed looking soldier on his right, "you think that's good, you should see the rest of my resume."

"You may also recall," Kate continued, "my father killed one of the Zygons as you were taking care of said Loch Ness monster?"

"I remember."

"When that Zygon was brought back to HQ for an autopsy, our scientists discovered it was still alive and, as near as they could tell, comatose," Kate handed the Doctor a file of medical records for him to review.

"This creature," the Doctor said, "this poor creature has just been rotting here all these years?"

"I had the same thought when I first began my tenure here, Doctor. I brought in experts in of every type of biology from all over the world to try and revive the Zygon. Nothing worked."

For all the value the Doctor placed on his friendship with the Brigadier, he was always frustrated by his stubborn refusal to think of anything but the protection of the human race. He was glad to see that was not a trait that had been passed down into his daughter.

"And now," the Doctor said, "the creature has finally woken up and vanished."

"Precisely."

"The Doctor thought for a moment, and then clapped his hands together. He had a plan.

"Kate, gather everyone in the building up in a room where we'll all fit and I can address everyone: a briefing room, the mess hall, anywhere. How long ago did the Zygon escape?"

"It was first reported forty-five minutes ago, so I would estimate at least an hour. Not nearly enough time to get passed every level of security while we're in full lockdown, but…" Kate trailed off for a moment, "oh, I see exactly what you're doing."

"Knew you would, Kate," the Doctor said with the smirk that all perpetrators of evil had come to fear throughout the cosmos, "knew you would."


	3. Chapter 2: Blending In

"All personnel report to the mess hall immediately. Repeat, all personnel-"

The commands were easy for the Zygon to ignore. If anything, it improved the odds of escape. With all of the humans distracted, it should be no problem to slip back above ground. The Zygon's escape was already difficult enough while trapped in his current form. It was taking much more time than expected to get the proper motions of walking like a typical homo sapien. The human form was always one he found difficult to assume, so limiting and suffocating. He longed to be in his old form again, but he knew it was only a matter of time before he could return to it foreve-

"Where're you goin' private?"

This voice the Zygon found far more difficult to ignore. The gruff voice belonged to Colonel Albright, UNIT'S Assistant Head of Military Affairs.

"I was just about to-"

"If the next words out of your mouth are anything but tellin' me you were on your way to the mess hall, I'll rip off your skull and use it as a paper weight!"

The Zygon was actually, genuinely afraid. He had come too far in his plan to let it be spoiled by a blowhard human being like this one. He would wait for the right moment to slip out again.

"I…was….going to the mess hall."

All the Zygon could think about as he trekked back through the halls of UNIT was, when the time comes, the loud one dies first.


	4. Chapter 3: Chaos in the Mess Hall

UNIT's crack team of well-trained military experts couldn't help but look ridiculous crammed into the mess hall. Some were standing, while some were sitting with their weapons hastily thrown on the plastic tables.

"They look like a heavily armed primary school at lunch," the Doctor tried to stifle his urge to laugh.

"Doctor, do try to be professional about this," Kate Stewart said through a suppressed grin.

"Right, right, you're right, sorry," the Doctor moved to the center of the room, "let's get everyone's attention then."

The Doctor pressed his pointer finger to his lips and began to make a loud "SHHHHHH" sound. Everyone in the room suddenly found that they were unable to speak.

"Good morning!" the Doctor said cheerfully, "I'm special agent Smith and I'm here because we've got a tiny, not at all scary so please, please don't panic, sort of hiccup to work out today. And it will go very, very smoothly if we all cooperate, okay?"

No one spoke.

"Okay, I would feel much better if everyone in the room said 'special agent Smith, we promise not to panic,' can we all say that?"

The soldiers looked around completely perplexed as to what was happening, and who was this strange man giving them orders.

"That's an order, everyone!" Kate shouted above the murmuring. She was a little surprised at how easily she was allowing this farce to continue.

"Special agent Smith," the group said in a low drone, "we promise not to panic."

"Wonderful, you're all lovely. Now, I need all of the new recruits to come up here. Anyone who has been here less than a month," the Doctor clapped his hands together to hurry the ten soldiers into a line. He faced the stern looking group of men and women who stood at rigid military attention.

"Director Stewart and I agreed that we want a small two person team to help us escort the prisoner," the Doctor said in a low voice so only the people in front of him could here, "we want to keep any…mistakes from occurring."

The Doctor stopped in front of one soldier, but at the moment he wasn't quite sure why. Something about her face…she had striking green eyes and a short hair cut that kept all but a few strands of her brown hair hidden under her UNIT beret.

"You, where are you from, Private…?"

"McCrimmon, sir. I'm from Scotland, sir. Inverness to be specific...sir."

A twinge went through the Doctor's hearts. He couldn't believe it. A McCrimmon, here.

"You're our first recruit, McCrimmon. Go keep an eye on Director Stewart."

"Agent Smith, if you're looking for experienced soldiers, I can recommend a few crack shots to you," the Doctor felt the firm hand of Colonel Albright shake his shoulder.

"And you must be…" the Doctor began.

"Colonel Albright, Assistant Head of Military Affairs."

"Seriously, they couldn't come up with a shorter title for you?"

"Pardon me?!"

"Colonel Albright," the Doctor said, ignoring the Colonel's anger, "you seem to be completely misunderstanding my primary goal here."

"Ah, you-you're…what?" Albright said, shaking his head in confusion.

"You see, Alby, can I call you Alby?

"You may no-"

"Terrific, Alby. You see," the Doctor now turned to address the entire room, "the alien we're after is called a Zygon, a being with the ability to change its form and resemble another living thing."

The soldiers began to eye one another with suspicion.

"Now, now," the Doctor said reassuringly, "don't panic. You all promised you wouldn't panic. Please! Listen!"

The paranoid eyes slowly returned their attention to the Doctor.

"The Zygon can change a shape, but he needs body print technology in order to be able to do it effectively for a long period of time. He's been exposed to the people he's changing into for decades, so it'll be easier for him to hold a form without the technology. But it's still like flexing a muscle. Sooner or later, he will get tired. In fact, sooner or later will be in about…"

The Doctor took a quick look at his watch.

"Four minutes."

"So, this is all," the Colonel sputtered.

"A stall tactic," Kate said, standing by the Doctor side.

The soldiers went back to looking around the room. In order to blend in, the Zygon copied those around it, though it was actually searching for some way to get out.

"When the Zygon appears," the Doctor said, "I want it captured peacefully."

"Peacefully?" Colonel Albright shouted.

"Alby, the next words out of your mouth better be ones of total agreement, or I'll make sure that scrubbing latrines is the primary duty of the Assistant Head of Military Affairs," Kate said with a sharp tone.

The Zygon was certain it would be caught. It felt its legs and arms begin to shake. The form wouldn't hold any longer. It needed something, it needed…

The Zygon snatched a grenade off the belt of a soldier standing next to it. It got down to the floor and slid it toward the center of the room towards the Doctor.

"Grenade!" one of the new recruits shouted.

Everyone in the room dove under tables, but the recruit ran up and kicked the grenade like a football with all of his strength, sending the deadly package soaring through the small lunch serving window and into the kitchen. The explosion rocked the cooking supplies of the back room, but kept anyone from being hurt. Although no one was hurt, the distraction was all the Zygon needed to slip through the door along with several groups of soldiers in an attempt to escape the blast.

"Right," Colonel Albright said, "now we do this my way."

The colonel pulled out a pistol and rounded up a posse of ten soldiers.

"I want that monster's hide!" he shouted.

The Doctor turned to the daring private. He was hunched over a fellow recruit who had twisted his ankle trying to dive out of the way of the expected explosion. The private had friendly eyes that clashed with his large frame.

"That was bloody stupid," the Doctor said with a scowl, which quickly changed to a grin, "but bloody brilliant!"

The Doctor shook the private's dark skinned hand.

"Thank you sir, I'm Private Samuel Mosley," he said, "I think I just volunteered, if you'll have me."

"All that footballing finally paid off, eh, Sam?" Private McCrimmon said.

"You bet, Harriet," Samuel said with a smile.

"Okay, enough of the pleasantries," the Doctor said, "Kate, you and McCrimmon get back to the main hub. I need you both to be my eyes and keep a watch out for the Zygon and Alby."

Kate threw the Doctor a walkie-talkie.

"I'll be in touch," she said, "what are you going to do?"

"Mosley and I will need to find Alby before he finds the Zygon."

"And what do we do when we find him?" Mosley said as he threw his gun back over his shoulder.

"Private, something you'll learn about me, is you never want to ask what my plan is, because I rarely have one."

"I'm starting to regret volunteering," Mosley said with a smirk.

"Right, we all have our jobs, let's move out!"

Mosley and the Doctor started to march down the hall keeping any sign out for the colonel.

"Agent Smith, the Colonel is most likely heading for the arsenal first," Mosley explained, "he always likes to stock up before he goes out on a mission."

"Typical, and by the way Mosley, please, call me Doctor."

"You're a doctor and a special agent?"

"I've had a long, interesting life."

"Are you sure we can pull this off, Doctor?" the Doctor and Mosley stopped walking, "alien space creatures and crazy colonels. It's a lot for my first day."

"Two things Mosley: first, you've showed more courage on your first day than many of those soldiers have in their entire careers. And second, in addition to you, I've also got one other secret weapon."

"What's that?"

" I've got a McCrimmon AND a Lethbridge-Stewart on my side. There's no way we can lose. Now, come on!"

Mosley ran down the hallway towards the arsenal with the Doctor following close behind.


	5. Chapter 4: Discoveries

"So, this beastie, director, what's it look like?"

Kate was already becoming exhausted by Harriet's questions. She had already given an abridged history of UNIT's founding and involvement in extraterrestrial activities, as well as a detailed rundown of what the mess hall's lunch menu was going to be for the next three months. Still, Kate answered every question with her usual professionalism. She knew Harriet McCrimmon was one of their top recruits, scoring the highest on all physical and mental aptitude tests, but she also knew that the cause of all these questions was something very simple: rookie nerves. It's one thing to be the top of your class, it's quite another to be chasing an actual alien creature through a massive underground compound, especially when the creature could be the person standing right next to you.

"It's, well, it's sort of a big…starfish…with little suckers on it, like on an octopus' tentacles."

"You must be jokin'," Harriet chuckled.

All around them soldiers rushed to their security posts. They were still two levels away from the command center, and for some reason the elevators were not functioning.

"Well, how do ya stop it? Or do you just kind of let it dry out after awhile?"

"Stop it?"

"Yeah, like if I fella is gettin' a bit too handsy while I'm out fer a pint, I usually give him a good," Harriet threw a fist out at an invisible barfly, "crack in the nose!"

"Zygons have most of the same weaknesses as normal people. But watch out for their hands, they have microscopic barbs in them that are covered in a paralyzing toxin," Kate smiled at her companion, "but it doesn't sound like you need help making sure it keeps its hands to itself."

Harriet cracked her knuckles.

"You bet I don't."

Only a few solid feet of concrete and three stories below Kate and Harriet, the Doctor and Samuel were trying to find a way to unlock the digital code of the weapons locker. The Doctor finally managed to pry the metal panel that kept the thick patch of wires hidden. With one arm elbow deep in circuitry, the Doctor asked Samuel for his sonic screwdriver.

"So, this thing can open any door except one made of…"

"Made of wood, yes, I know, it's all very embarrassing," the Doctor point the screwdriver into the mess of wires, only to be disappointed by the screwdriver's inability to create even the tiniest of sparks.

"Nope, still too much interference!" the Doctor threw his screwdriver across the hall and went back to poking and prodding the exposed innards of the security system.

"I'm more surprised that UNIT put wood finish on the interiors of its security panels," Samuel said, trying to peek over the Doctor's shoulder to see what he was up to.

"Well, it probably happened that one day when I was cross with the Brigadier and told him I was going to dismantle every gun in storage while he was away on holiday. He always took everything so _seriously_."

"The who?"

"A good chap who worked here long before you were born."

"Before I was born? You're younger than men, mate."

"Yes, well, don't judge a book by its rubbish cover, private," the Doctor looked back with a smile, "tell me a story, I work better when I'm hearing a story."

"Like, a fairytale?"

"No, no, tell me about you, Private Mosely. How'd you get so good at kicking grenades?"

"Well, I was a footballer for awhile," Samuel sat down next to the Doctor as he worked, "I was real good. I was gonna go pro, had a sponsorship deal for some brand of energy drink lined up too. The stuff was bright orange and tasted like old cabbage, so at least I didn't have to pretend to enjoy it for too long…"

"What do you mean, 'for awhile'?" the Doctor asked, still concentrating on the wires, "what happened?"

"Car crash," Samuel said, the night, the wet road, the blinding headlights all came back to him, "messed up both of my legs pretty badly and I…I just hit a bad spot for awhile. I don't know if…you've ever woken up some morning and just felt like the man in the mirror wasn't the one you wanted there? Like, whatever to that guy who was here yesterday? I liked him. I want him back…" Samuel laughed, nothing was funny, he just didn't want the Doctor to see any tears that might be in his eyes.

A bright electronic beep took Samuel's attention away from the past. The doors of the weapons locker slid open slowly, revealing the deadly cache within.

"Believe it or not, Samuel," the Doctor reached out his hand and helped the young man to his feet, "I know precisely how you feel."

His troubles melted away for a moment, and Samuel remembered just how much better life had become since that night he woke up in his decimated vehicle.

"Now, private. What should be done with all of these terribly dangerous weapons?"

"I've got a few ideas," Samuel said as he entered the locker.

The central command of UNIT headquarters was completely empty when Kate and Harriet entered through its double doors.

"Where's everyone run off to?" Harriet asked, keeping her left hand hovering near her pistol. The computers were all left on, some in the middle of a program.

"It looks like everyone was evacuated in a hurry," Kate said. She brought up the security feed and watched as the Doctor ran out of the weapons locker, looked down the hallway, then up at the security camera and give a thumbs up. Switching between cameras, she finally found Colonel Albright and his posse barreling through the stairwell.

"Doctor, Albright is going to be breathing down your neck in a few minutes," Kate spoke quickly into the walkie-talkie, not moving her eyes away from the images on the screen.

"Thanks, Kate! We'll be done here in-oh!" the sound of a loud clang followed by a small explosion burst through the other end of the line, "we're fine! We're both fine! Doctor out!"

"Oy! Come out of there!"

Kate turned and saw Harriet holding her gun at a middle aged man in a dark suit and tie. He looked extremely nervous, and having a weapon pointed right at his head certainly wasn't doing anything to help his disposition.

"Doctor Weyland, correct?" Kate asked, she recognized his thick glasses and his thinning grey hair from the employee dossiers. Kate had undoubtedly met every single person working in UNIT at some point or another, but she found it easier to simply memorize the confidential files of every person under her command, rather than try to recall small bits of chit-chat from holiday parties and business luncheons. The memorizing had been fairly simple too; it only took one weekend with the occasional break for a snack.

"Y-yes ma'am," Weyland said, "Colonel Albright ordered everyone to-to leave…but he told me to stay behind and try to-to keep people out…guess I didn't do very well."

"It's all right," Kate said in a soothing voice, "did Dr. Fredricks leave too? I'm surprised the stubborn old man unlike just gave up his post like that."

"It took some convincing, but the colonel eventually got him to leave," Dr. Weyland put his hands down and slowly returned to his work station. Kate made eye contact with Harriet and subtly dashed her eyes towards Weyland. Harriet took the hint and followed him, staying just far away enough to keep from arousing his suspicions.

"Don't worry, doctor," Kate said, still watching Weyland closely, "we'll have you home to your wife and children in no time."

"Thank you, director Stewart," Weyland continued to fiddle away at this console, completely unaware of the Scottish woman standing right behind him.

"And that's three," Kate said giving Harriet a nod.

"What is-?" Weyland was interrupted by the click of the gun in Harriet's hand.

"First," Kate began, "Dr. Fredricks retired about three months ago. Second, Fredricks is a she, and third, the real Dr. Weyland is not married and does not have children, but I hear his partner is a lovely man."

Dr. Weyland's body morphed suddenly, he gained nearly a foot in height and several pounds of muscle and mass. The Zygon swung its arm at Harriet, but she quickly ducked under the alien and dove into its stomach, tackling it into the line of computer consoles. The woman and alien toppled over the consoles in a pile of human and extraterrestrial limbs. Harriet managed to pin the Zygon down and, with a sharp punch across the face, knocked it back into unconsciousness.

"Yuck," Harriet said as she shook her open hand, "s'like wrestling with a pile of seaweed. Disgusting."

"We're not done yet, I need to call the Doctor," Kate picked the walkie-talkie up and prepared to make her the call.

"What are we goin' to do with this thing, anyway?"

"Exactly what the Doctor suggested: help it break out of here," Kate breathed deep and hoped she and the Doctor knew what they were doing.


	6. Chapter 5: Memories of Zygor

Filled with a raging blood lust for the alien fugitive, Colonel Albright finally arrived with his troop at the weapons locker. He thought about the gorgeous instruments of brutality and destruction that waited for him within. What he wasn't expecting was who was about to pop out.

"Oh," the Doctor was surprised to see his militant annoyance so soon, "hello, Alby. Samuel and I were just, ah..."

"Doing a routine inspection," Samuel quickly covered.

Through grinding teeth, the colonel curled his face into the most intimidating snarl he had practiced in the mirror that morning.

"Out of my way, you moronically bowtied buffon!"

"S'not moronic, bowties are co-"

"Doctor, he's probably right, we should get out of his way," Samuel stepped aside to allow the military menace into the locker.

The Doctor looked back at Samuel, then at Albright.

"You're absolutely right," the Doctor moved and held out his arm to give the soldiers a warm welcome. The troop piled in, but were surprised to see the locker was completely dark.

"Whoops," the Doctor pulled out his screwdriver, "forgot to turn the lights back on."

He pointed his screwdriver towards the ceiling. The device's electronic whir flipped the lights back on, revealing a useless pile of scrap metal and gun parts scattered across the floor.

"Samuel!" the Doctor said, "was the room like this a moment ago?!"

"No, sir," Samuel said, "all of the weapons were fine when we inspected it."

"Well," the Doctor said, reaching for the door controls, "I am positively gobsmacked. Wait here, Alby, we'll see if we can get to the bottom of this mystery!"

Colonel Albright was too slow to catch the door as it slid shut, locking him and his men inside. Outside the door he could faintly hear the Doctor speaking into his walkie talkie saying "Kate, we're on our way to you now!"

"I'm going to string that man up by his suspenders!" he shouted as he pounded impotently on the door.

Despite capturing the Zygon intruder, Kate Stewart's problems were just beginning. Hopefully she'd be able to convince her overseers in the British government that being an accomplice to the escape of an alien prisoner, that was also part of an invasion of Earth, was completely necessary in her duty to fight for queen and country. Harriet McCrimmon was just excited that it was only her first day on the job and she had already punched her first monster in the face.

Kate inspected the Zygon prisoner which was still unconscious on the floor of the UNIT command hub.

"How hard did you hit it?" she asked the young Scot who had been assigned to protect her.

"I barely touched him, I swear! Ya'd think a big starfish could take a punch to the face without fainting like a baby..."

The Doctor and Samuel entered before Kate could give Harriet a stern lecture on proper UNIT procedure on dealing with prisoners.

"McCrimmon, I'm assuming this is your handiwork?" the Doctor said upon spotting the creature on the floor.

"Aye, sir. Sorry, sir." Harriet said.

"It's alright, I'll have to do this the hard way then." the Doctor crouched down beside the Zygon and gently placed his hands over its face and closed his eyes.

For the Doctor, the entire room went dark and all he could see was the Zygon. _Why now? _the Doctor asked without words. _You've been here for years, why escape now? _The Doctor felt in his hearts a longing for a long dead home. The Zygon's memories of the jade colored oceans it would swim through as a child's flooded the Doctor's mind as if they were his own precious images of the past. Suddenly, a sharp pain entered the Doctor's body. His skin felt like it was on fire and every organ within his body cramped. The Zygon's eyes opened and locked with the Doctor's. The room came back into sharp focus and the Doctor realized he was lying on the floor.

He slowly got to his feet, with the help of Samuel and Kate. The Zygon was awake, but it did not try to attack its captors.

"I know everything," the Doctor said.

"Know what?" Kate asked.

"I am dying," the Zygon replied with a weak voice.

"The Zygon home planet, Zygor," the Doctor explained, "it was destroyed. That was the whole reason they came to Earth in the first place," he looked to Kate, "I'm sorry, Kate. You did your best to help it, but...you didn't have the proper equipment or nutrients and...this planet just wasn't meant for them."

The Doctor approached the creature and gently took its hand.

"I am sorry...for the trouble I-"

"No need for that. The men you stung were merely paralyzed. They should be waking up any moment now."

The Doctor looked back at his three friends and was struck with an idea.

"How would you like to see those emerald seas one last time?" the Doctor asked. And he couldn't be sure, because it was one of the few things he never expected to see in all of the cosmos, but he thought he saw the Zygon smile.


	7. Chapter 6: Escape

"I can't believe you've kept it all these years!"

The Doctor's face was lit up like a million joyful children on a million Christmas mornings. Sitting in the UNIT garage, hidden under an old tarp for decades, was an automobile that shined in flawless canary yellow, Bessie. The old Edwardian roadster had not been used since the Doctor left UNIT and, despite some wear from the passage of time, looked like the terror of the motorways that the Doctor remembered it being.

Kate was firing up the engines of a nearby jeep which, compared to Bessie, was quite drab.

"Oi, you're not coming in Bessie?"

"Not enough room, Doctor. Plus, you may need cover."

Samuel hopped in to the passenger side of the jeep.

"And I'd rather ride in something that looks like it'll actually drive," he said, "no offense meant, Doc."

Harriet was helping the Zygon into Bessie's smooth leather backseat, or at least, the form the Zygon was now in. To the unknowing eye, it looked as though Harriet was helping a tall, blonde haired woman in military dress into the car.

"Sorry about hitting ya before," Harriet said, "I got a bit anxious."

"No need to apologize," the Zygon's voice was now raspy, but warm like honey, "I didn't really give you much of a choice. Thank you…thank you for all of this."

The Doctor slid the key into the ignition and the roar of Bessie's engine reminded him even more of why he loved this old jalopy so much.

"I can't believe this thing still runs!" Harriet said.

"Never doubt old things," the Doctor said, "they may not always work the way they used to, but you can't learn anything new without them."

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and opened the garage door with a quick point and press of the alien device.

The pair of vehicles drove out into the night and away from UNIT headquarters. But unknown to the wayward quartet and their extraterrestrial fugitive, another door in UNIT headquarters opened as they made their escape. When this door opened, a gargantuan tank treaded over the ground and began the pursuit of its quarry.

UNIT's dedication to keeping their operations secret meant that their headquarters was located just outside a small village along the coastline in the country. Few people knew it was there, and most who knew about it, didn't really care much as to what was going on within its walls. The summer air was some of the cleanest air that Harriet had ever breathed in her life. She turned back to check on the Zygon. It was staring up at the array of stars that could be seen as clearly as anything. The pleasant blonde haired woman glowed and turned back into a large starfish.

"Doctor," Harriet said, "you've been doin' this kinda thing for awhile, yeah?"

"Longer than you'd believe," the Doctor said. Harriet could tell by the weight in his voice that he was telling the truth.

"I…well, when I was a kid," Harriet's face went flush with embarrassment as she told her tale, "I used to hear stories about my great, great grandfather. They called him 'Mad Jamie' and he was this daffy old man who told stories about travelling to other planets and fighting monsters…no one ever believed him though. He lived his whole life in the highlands and then in his old age he starts raving. And most of the stories he couldn't remember all the way through. Like someone had erased the beginnings or the middles from his mind."

"Are you asking me if he was right?" the Doctor asked.

"No, not exactly. He always mentioned a man. A funny man in a bowtie. The Doctor. He…you can't be…"

The Doctor smiled.

"Jamie McCrimmon," the Doctor voice caught in his throat, "Harriet, did you believe the stories that 'Mad Jamie' told?"

"Yes," she said, "especially after today, yes."

"Then that is all that matters."

The choir of chirping crickets was now accompanied by a low clanking sound, gradually moving closer and closer to the two vehicles. The Doctor looked over at Kate, driving alongside him. Her face looked grim. She reached for the walkie talkie sitting on the dashboard.

"Keep driving, Doctor. We're going to fall back and see what that is," Kate's static-filled voice said through Harriet's walkie talkie. But the answer came sooner than they were expecting. In the darkness, a single spotlight illuminated Kate and Samuel's face and then swooped over to Bessie and her passengers. The spotlight was attached to the top of a creeping tank that stalked closer and closer like a predatory cat, ready to pounce. Peeking out of the top of the tank was Colonel Albright.

"Doctor!" the Colonel's voice echoed and squawked through a megaphone, "this is your final warning! If you do not return the prisoner, we will open fire!"

"Do you have anything to slow it down?" Harriet shouted.

"I've got an anti-theft force field, a remote control, and an inertia hyperdrive, but that's a bloody tank!"

A deafening blast interrupted any plans the Doctor had at that moment. Both drivers twisted their steering wheels to avoid the explosion that fell between them.

"Director Stewart," Samuel said, "permission to do something rather crazy and stupid?"

"Those are the only options we seem to have left!" Kate said.

"Get us next to the tank!"

The Doctor watched as Kate's jeep made a sharp turn back in the direction of the tank.

"We're going to have to be a distraction!" he said to his terrified passengers, "I'm brilliant at distractions, though! Brilliant!"

Bessie kicked up dirt as she skidded along the dirt road and sped back towards the metallic monstrosity. The tank's gun couldn't decide who to fire on first; it creaked back and forth, before finally choosing Bessie as its target.

"Okay everyone," the Doctor said, pointing his sonic screwdriver at one of the devices attached to the steering wheel, "we're going to try something I've never actually done before, but, in theory, it should work!"

"What theory?!" the Zygon shouted.

"The one I just came up with in my head, now hold on!"

The Doctor drove straight towards the tank's gun. Another shot fired into the summer night with the same intensity as the first. The shell hurtled towards Bessie. The Doctor, Harriet, and the Zygon shouted as they saw death flying towards them. Just when the impact seemed inevitable, the shell flew right over the car as if an invisible force suddenly scooped it up and threw it miles away.

"Ha!" the Doctor shouted.

"How did-?! That was-! WE'RE ALIVE!" Harriet couldn't catch her breath. She was sure her life was going to end next to a kook in a bowtie and a big starfish from space.

"Magnetic force field anti-theft device," the Doctor explained, "normally, it magnetizes any unwarranted users and makes them stick to the car, I simply reversed the polarity of the magnet to push things away rather than pulling them close."

"That's it?" Harriet said, "Just reverse the polarity?"

"It's always surprisingly effective," the Doctor said, "and look what our friend Samuel is up to!"

During the commotion, Samuel managed to climb on top of the tank. He was trying to pry open the entrance like it was a deadly can of soup. The opening suddenly flew open and struck Samuel in the chin, knocking him backwards. One of Albright's soldiers emerged and tackled Samuel onto the surface of the tank, next to the base of the gun.

"Doctor, we need to-"

"Way ahead of you!" the Doctor slammed his foot on the gas pedal to reach the side of the tank. In the back of the car, the Zygon coughed up a black goo.

"Doctor," it said weakly, "I'm-" but it couldn't finish, the pain of simply speaking was too great.

"Doctor, as soon as I get up there, you need to go," Harriet said.

"No!" the Doctor said with fury, "I can't leave you, I refuse-"

"Director Stewart can watch out for us, but if you don't get him to safety, then all of this woulda been for nothin'."

"Fine! Fine! You McCrimmons, always so damn stubborn!"

Harriet thought about what that meant for a moment. She thought about all those amazing stories her parents told her, usually with hint of irony in their voice. They never believed in those fictions that had made their family a mockery for years, but Harriet knew, somewhere in her mind, that the man in the blue box had to be real. Now she knew for sure.

Samuel had managed to get the upper hand against his attacker, but he was still in no shape to continue the fight on his own. A hard punch to the eye when he was pinned was making it nearly impossible to see. The two men grappled in a stalemate. Neither seemed willing or able to give an inch to his opponent. Samuel felt the adrenaline start to fade. His body felt weak and just when he thought he had lost, a fist smashed into the jaw of his attacker, knocking him clear off the tank.

"Hey, Sammy," Harriet said, "oi, that's a nasty looking bruise you're gonna have there."

"McCrimmon, I owe you a drink after this," Samuel said.

"Don't be daft, Sammy," she said, "you owe me at least three."

They watched as Bessie sped off into the night with flames bursting from its exhaust pipe. Another two soldiers popped out from the tank. The first immediately took a swing at Samuel. He managed to duck and delivered two hard punches to the soldier's stomach in return. The second didn't even get a chance to attack Harriet before she went charging into a diving tackle that sent both of them flying off of the tank. The two bodies hit the ground hard while the tank continued its war path, unfazed.

"Oh, I gotta think before I start tackling," Harriet thought to herself. The soldier landed a few inches away, unconscious. She slowly got to her feet as Kate stopped her vehicle right in front of her.

"McCrimmon," the director said, "are you okay?"

"Aye, sure," Harriet tried to lift her arm to wave off Kate's concern, but a flash of pain kept her from lifting it more than a few inches, "actually, my arm is definitely broken."

Kate climbed out of the jeep and began to untie Harriet's boot.

"I'm going to need both of your boots," the director said to a visibly confused Harriet, "and a grenade."

It seemed as though Colonel Albright and his men were determined to take their frustration in losing the Doctor out on Samuel. The tank charged onward with some glimmer of hope in apprehending the Zygon again, while Samuel continued to trade blows with one of the comically large soldiers under Albright's command. Samuel hadn't felt this exhausted in years. Not since the match before his career ending injury. The score was tied. Samuel had been playing for almost the entire game. His energy seemed to feed off of the roaring crowd that packed the stadium. And when he made that final kick to win it for his team, he had a feeling in himself like nothing in his life. Until tonight. Maybe it was all the blows to the head, but he could have sworn he heard all of those screaming fans again: cheering on his team, cheering for him. This could be the end, but at least he knew he would have won it all for his friends.

Samuel was so punch drunk he almost didn't believe it when he saw director Stewart leaping onto the tank from the jeep driven by Harriet. Real or not, it was all the motivation he needed to deliver one strong uppercut to the muscular menace that had been plaguing him.

"Samuel, get clear!"

"Yes, mum!"

Samuel staggered to the edge of the tank and didn't jump so much as fall into the back of the jeep.

Kate, who had replaced her business casual heels for UNIT regulation combat boots, grabbed the grenade as tightly as she could. She took a deep breath and ignored all of the thoughts in her head telling her this was the worst idea she's ever had. She began to run up the gun of the tank, one foot at a time, like the balance beam in her childhood schoolyard. The gun flew up and down to shake her off like an arm does to an irritating fly. Her balance gone, Kate began to fall, but managed to catch the gun with both hands. The price for her safety was the loss of the grenade, which fell under the tank's unstoppable path. Kate swung up and managed to wrap her legs around the slowly cooling gun. Her gloves and pants barely managed to keep her flesh from burning. She shimmed slowly up the gun and tried to think of a way to fall without being crushed under the unforgiving treads of the tank. Before she could risk dropping down, Harriet swopped under the gun. Samuel, still sitting in the back of the jeep, had his hand raised with a grenade clutched in his fingers. Kate reached down and grabbed the explosive as quickly as she could. Without even needing to be told, Harriet drove as far away as she could. Kate managed to shimmy up to the top of the gun. She ripped out the pin with her teeth and held it for a few seconds. The tank came to a sudden stop as Kate slipped the grenade straight down its open barrel.

A few soldiers and Colonel Albright rushed to escape the newly made time bomb. The explosion knocked Kate off of her feet and into the dewy ground. Her body was relieved to feel the cool grass after the flames nearly lit her on fire. She stared up at the stars and could only think about what her dad would say at this moment.

"Damn good work, Kate," she said, emulating her father voice.

Miles and miles away, the Doctor stood with the seemingly endless sea before him. His companion was completely quiet. It wasn't quite sure what to think. Any traveler who had been on a journey as long as the one it had taken would feel the same trepidations knowing that it had finally come to a close.

"This is the end," it whispered with its weakened voice.

"No, don't think of it that way," the Doctor said, "it's the beginning of something no one has ever seen before."

The Zygon lifted its head high. Step by step the ocean reached higher on its body until it was out of sight completely, swallowed by the dark sea. The Doctor stood on that shore for awhile, listening to the gentle waves and contemplating the reflection of the moon against the water.

"So, you can just fire him, just like that?" Harriet asked. Her arm had been put into a makeshift tourniquet made from one of Samuel's pant legs.

"Well, I'd say trying to kill two of your subordinates is sufficient enough cause for a sacking, wouldn't you?" Kate replied. "Besides, I'd say I already have two very good candidates to become the new Co- Assistant Heads of Military Affairs."

"I'd be more excited if we hadn't run out of gas," Samuel said. The trio was stuck walking back to UNIT headquarters, though for all the energy they had, it was more like they were shambling back. Luckily, the sound of a roaring engine brought some relief.

"You all look like you had quite a time without me, eh?" the Doctor pulled over and let his weary comrades into his yellow beauty. "Where's Alby gotten off to?"

"He is no doubt walking to the nearest bus stop," Kate put her head back and shut her eyes, "no doubt I'll get a bunch of nasty calls tomorrow, but I'll get them to see my side of things."

In the back of the car, Samuel rested his head against Harriet's shoulder and immediately dozed off. With the wind blowing through their hair, the Doctor drove back to UNIT.

"I meant to ask, Doctor," Kate said, "how have Amy and Rory been since I last saw them."

"Oh, they're wonderful, those two. I'll be seeing them tomorrow, actually. We've got a little day trip planned. New York City. It should be fun."

Kate eventually joined Harriet and Samuel and slipped off into a deep sleep as well. The Doctor sat in the comfortable silence and smiled.

"Good memories," the Time Lord said, "always need a few good memories."


End file.
